Klarinet Archive - Posting 000507.txt from 1997/06

From: rteitelbaum@-----.com (Rob Teitelbaum)
Subj: Einstein/Edison--Let's resolve this
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 23:59:00 -0400

The quote is most emphatically Thomas Alva Edison's. My sources are both
Bartlett's and the World Book Encyclopedia. (As well as 14 years of
formal schooling, but that usually doesn't work too well as a source.)
And the actual quote was not about success, but rather it was "Genius is
1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Success probably would have been a
better word, though, since I think that's what he was talking about. Of
course, he failed approximately 999 times before finally making a
lightbulb, so by my calculations that would make it more like .1%
inspiration and 99.9% perspiration... :)

Just to make this clarinet-related, I suppose I'll add to my $.02 to the
current thread on mouthpieces. I think I've said this before, but I
consider the mouthpiece/reed/lig. setup to be the most critical part of
the clarinet, and though I love my R-13s, I would give them up in a
second if I had a choice between a good mouthpiece or good clarinets. At
the same time, the mouthpiece setup is a highly individual thing, so
starting beginners off on a good mouthpiece before their embouchure is
fully developed may not be a good idea.

Rob Teitelbaum
rteitelbaum@-----.com